As I am writing here, I am listening to Live from Abbey Road. The Hoosiers are playing now, and they are kind of good, in a pop kind of way. It is a recording or taping off the dish. My husband tells me I always use the wrong word, hey I say both words, so after all these years I still don't know which one is correct. I think that it really bugs him that I don't know the right word, is it being taped or recorded. Anyhoo, who really cares, I got the show recorded or is it taped? I laugh because it is like when he clears his throat. That kind of gets under my skin because it reminds me of my mother and her starting to clear her throat and then that annoying, so annoying cough, she called it a tickle cough, that she does. She still does it. I spent hours in our family car, driving back and forth to Bemidji, Minnesota, when I was young, to see my mom's parents. My mom, would always say, it is the dry winter weather that made her cough like that. I endured. I did learn how to snap my gum from her. I still snap my gum. I learned to snap gum chewing Dentenye. I don't really know if they still make the original Dentenye. I so loved that gum. That and Clove gum. The reason I am writing about when I was younger is because, this week is going to be so cold here. It reminds me of northern Minnesota and when I lived at home with my folks. The cold never stopped us from ice skating, going to hockey games, and downhill skiing. It especially didn't stop us from going to Bemidji, on that lonely highway in the terrible cold. What the hell was my mom and dad thinking. Around Beana and Ball Club there is nothing. They apparently believed in hope and a prayer that we would have no freeze ups. Traveling with kids in these temperatures is not always safe. So you parents with little ones be careful. Also be watchful, and let your pets out for less than a couple of minutes to do their treasure drops. My two are in and out. I watch them like a hawk. A momma hawk. If I see one of their little legs start lifting up, I open the door and call. Hurry up and get in here. Today will be the warmest of the next 5 or 6 they say. Oh yeah, so if I need anything from the grocery store I should go and get it today. Yeah right. No guarantees. When I woke up this morning I thought that it was Sunday, so when I thought about it some more, I went damn, it really is Monday. I should take a week off in January next year, just because of the cold. I will dwell on that, maybe I will. I really don't like how cold it is. Oh to be young and riding back and forth to Bemidji, snapping my Dentenye gum. Life used to be so less complicated.